I hope he doesn't. If everyone who sees this sort of thing simply walks on by then it allows it to continue. The truth will come out and he will be cleared.

Allows what to continue? Dealing accordingly with an underage and uncooperative kid smoking, giving an officer a hard time, and being physically resistant? So do you think Mark's feels it was worth it to hang around the scene instead of quietly leaving and going about his own business? He had nothing to gain by sticking around.

^^^ Exactly. The last thing you ever want to do is make an officer feel unsafe or threatened, whether you're 100% guilty of breaking the law or 100% innocent. While I do feel the punishment given to Marks is too severe, his presence alone in this scenario added to the tension of the situation and the officer's discomfort and was completely avoidable for him.

If you get pulled over for a minor traffic offense, you play it cool even if the officer is a major prick. Only a moron gives an officer attitude; it never ends well. You fight those battles in a court room, not on the street with the officer.

Truer words are rarely spoken.

I love it when people think that they can mitigate charges by expressing to the officer that they "know their rights" and/or acting uncooperative. You have very little power during a traffic stop or any interaction with an officer for that matter. Your best bet is to always keep your cool despite how unjust they're acting.

If you're truly dedicated toward playing the system then I would suggest manipulation (haha). I recall a time in school when I was dumb and carried weed everywhere. Like any 17yr old kid I was eventually pulled over for something minor and the cop smelled bud. Naturally, they ransacked my car, found the bag, and began asking questions. Despite the fact that I was ignorant for carrying s*it around with me, I was completely familiar with the repercussions of marijuana possession in CA: a misdemeanor...but still something that could make life annoying for awhile as a minor. Instead of giving the generic teenager response of "that isn't mine", I admitted that it was and continued to act extremely nervous while asking the cop "how long am I going to go to jail?". The eyes of the officer seriously lit up and he gave me some answer like "WELL, I HAVEN'T FIGURED THAT OUT YET." I continued to feed in to the guys ego by saying my school council would kick me out, my career would be ruined, and any other BS I could conjure while I had his attention.

To make a long story short the cop ended up making me dump the bud out in a sewer drain and wrote me a fix-it ticket for a cracked windshield - nothing else. I've used a similar strategy in all interactions I've ever had with law enforcement and its worked beautifully every-single-time.

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